Local SIM in Japan

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allstarnz

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#171181 9-Apr-2015 10:38

I'm going to Japan for a week next month.

From my reading it seems that it's one of the more complicated countries to acquire a local SIM. A lot of the posts are a few years old now, has anything much changed? It seems as I'm a foreigner I'll be restricted to data only. Not a massive deal, but the odd SMS here and there would be useful.

Also, any recommendations on providers that can give me at least 100MB/day would be great. Also, whether you can tether on prepaid. I know in some countries, they block this.

My phone does 2100MHz, so that should work it seems

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#1279523 9-Apr-2015 10:44

As you have read Japan is not easy to get local SIM on prepay it could be easier to use data roaming

allstarnz

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#1279534 9-Apr-2015 11:01

Thanks John.

At $2.50/MB with Spark, no thanks.

old3eyes

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#1279588 9-Apr-2015 12:58

allstarnz: Thanks John.

At $2.50/MB with Spark, no thanks.

WiFi??

Regards,

Old3eyes

ALTRON

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#1279600 9-Apr-2015 13:19

Try this http://www.so-net.ne.jp/prepaid/en/index.html prepaid LTE SIM.

Availabe from most airports (two outlets at Narita airport tokyo) And stores around tokyo/japan

Im not too sure of the pricing for the 1GB for 30 days sim.

If youre after just wifi perhaps try http://wi2.co.jp/en/300/

allstarnz

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#1279611 9-Apr-2015 13:29

ALTRON: Try this http://www.so-net.ne.jp/prepaid/en/index.html prepaid LTE SIM.

Availabe from most airports (two outlets at Narita airport tokyo) And stores around tokyo/japan

Im not too sure of the pricing for the 1GB for 30 days sim.

That looks perfect, thanks.

It's so odd how there is no pricing for the packs. It's about $20 for the 500MB extra, so that is some sort of idea I guess.

Wonder if they block tethering.

:edit: Looks like it's 3000 yen for 1GB. That's acceptable
http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Japan

old3eyes

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#1279802 9-Apr-2015 16:37

Not sure how you will get on for LTE there. This is a list of the supported bands according to the site above.

This service supports the Xi® and FOMA® networks operated in Japan by NTT DOCOMO.
LTE (Xi®): Band 1 (2100 MHz)/Band 19 (800 MHz)/Band 21 (1500 MHz)/Band 3 (1800 MHz, only some areas)
W-CDMA（FOMA®）：Band 1 (2100MHz)/Band 19 (800MHz)

Regards,

Old3eyes

allstarnz

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#1279869 9-Apr-2015 17:39

My phone doesn't do 4G. So I guess WCDMA 2100MHz should go? Nobody in NZ does 800 from memory.

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sbiddle

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#1279895 9-Apr-2015 18:09

You can't get a SIM over there as a tourist so you can totally forget about that. There are some providers who will resell SIM cards, but they're pretty hard to come across.

What is common absolutely everywhere are WiFi hotspots which are available from various vendors which use 3G, 4G or WiMAX which you can get for anything from a few $ per day upwards. This really is the best solution if you're a data hungry customer and not on Vodafone so can't benefit from their data bundles.

eXDee

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#1279985 9-Apr-2015 20:14

Since you can't 'buy' a sim as a tourist, you 'rent' them. Some places simply say you can discard the 'rented' sim card, others require you to return them. That one you linked said its a 3000 yen penalty for lost sim cards, so i suppose you have to return it with them.

While its not always the cheapest, i can highly recommend EConnect Japan. You can get Sim cards or hotspots from them and they are english speaking tourist friendly. Its best if you have them ship directly to your hotel room imo.
The sim cards are all NTT DoCoMo. This means you'll get coverage almost everywhere - the limitation will likely be your phone supporting the right bands however. Do not get the 300K sim if you want to rely on your data connection, its definitely a best effort service and its mostly unusable until off peak times (eg after 10pm at night).

Their hotspots are Y!Mobile (Previously EACCESS/EMOBILE) and are unlimited. Y!Mobile covers all the main centres, but may not cover remote areas, and you might not get coverage for your entire trip on the shinkansen for example between cities.

https://www.econnectjapan.com/

JamesL

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#1280017 9-Apr-2015 21:00

We got a 4g wifi hotspot when we were over there for a month last year, it was delivered and waiting at our hotel room when we got into the country then we deposited it into a post box at the airport before we left.

That coupled with free wifi at every hotel means you don't need a local sim.

We used http://www.globaladvancedcomm.com/pocketwifi.html which rent the same hotspots as exdee posted above.

allstarnz

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#1280180 10-Apr-2015 08:50

Thanks guys, that's some really good input there, and now I have some options to investigate.

Will let you know what I go with and how it went.

allstarnz

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#1315875 2-Jun-2015 09:02

Just to round this thread off.

I ended up getting a prepaid SIM from these guys - http://lte.so-net.ne.jp/sim/prepaid/ I didn't really need enough data, or have the will to fork out for a pocket wifi. The good thing about this one too was that I didn't need to return the SIM. It worked well and had good coverage, I think it used the NTT Docomo network. But as I alluded to in another thread, as it was data only it meant my phone was constantly looking for network, and this did end up hammering my battery.

I also ended up getting paid wifi access as well. Though there was a decent amount of access to free wifi, it wasn't all over the place. Not ideal when I was using Google Maps a lot. I ended up using Wi2 http://wi2.co.jp/en/300/ , which was about NZ$20 for a one week pass. The hotspots were in a lot of places. I found it was actually more available in Kyoto than Tokyo. Anecdotally anyhow. If you're in Japan, it could also be worth checking out NTT. There seemed to be a lot of 'NTT-SPOT' SSID's around.

johnr

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#1315876 2-Jun-2015 09:04

I fly up to Tokyo on the 11th and will be using roaming :)

ALTRON

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#1315892 2-Jun-2015 09:18

allstarnz: Just to round this thread off.

I ended up getting a prepaid SIM from these guys - http://lte.so-net.ne.jp/sim/prepaid/ I didn't really need enough data, or have the will to fork out for a pocket wifi. The good thing about this one too was that I didn't need to return the SIM. It worked well and had good coverage, I think it used the NTT Docomo network. But as I alluded to in another thread, as it was data only it meant my phone was constantly looking for network, and this did end up hammering my battery.

I also ended up getting paid wifi access as well. Though there was a decent amount of access to free wifi, it wasn't all over the place. Not ideal when I was using Google Maps a lot. I ended up using Wi2 http://wi2.co.jp/en/300/ , which was about NZ$20 for a one week pass. The hotspots were in a lot of places. I found it was actually more available in Kyoto than Tokyo. Anecdotally anyhow. If you're in Japan, it could also be worth checking out NTT. There seemed to be a lot of 'NTT-SPOT' SSID's around.

Thanks for the update.

eXDee

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#1316212 2-Jun-2015 14:09

Where did you buy your so-net sim?

At the narita airport, Mobile Center only sold an overpriced 1gb one which they were out of stock of. They instead pushed what seems to be their own MVNO "Wi-Ho!" which was considerably more expensive. Ended up getting one as we needed data and didn't have time to mess around - which is probably what most people do.

I went there on the advice i read that they sold them there, would be curious where to look in the future at Narita.

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